Favorite Teams

Mike Burke: Games of his youth kept everyone active

I recall the game of dodge ball that is still played today. You have a rubber ball, probably a large one, and the person who is "it" has to hit someone else with the ball, and they become "it." Simple? Yes. Fun? Yes.

HOLYOKE - Someone mentioned games we played as kids the other day, and it brought me back to the days of my youth, as those questions usually do.

Of course, boys played baseball and football, but we were talking about “other” games.

I can recall the usual “hide-’n-seek” and “kick the can” and tag-type games, but there were others, of course.

The girls in our neighborhood played hop scotch, jumped rope and had other diversions. Some of them were very good at jumping rope and probably could have been very good at other games, but, unfortunately, in those days, athletics were very limited for the girls. Not fair, right?

I recall the game of dodge ball that is still played today. You have a rubber ball, probably a large one, and the person who is “it” has to hit someone else with the ball, and they become “it.”

Simple? Yes. Fun? Yes.

It also involved a lot of running around and so was good for the conditioning, I guess.

Then, there was the game known as “Red Rover,” in which you would line up two teams about 20 yards apart. Each team would hold hands and the captain would shout, “Red rover, red rover, send Jimmy right over.”

Then, Jimmy, or whoever, would run as fast as he could and try to jump into the weak link of the chain of the other team. If he broke the chain, he could select one of that team to take back with him to his team; if he didn’t break the chain, he was “captured” by the other team. The team with the most people at the end won, unless there was an argument, and, thus, disorder would prevail.

We didn’t have a lot of “equipment” in those days, so sometimes we would take a tennis ball, cut it in half and play stick ball. The stick was usually the handle of an old broom. It was fun, and you could really make the ball curve, dip and dance. It was hard to hit as well, so most games were low scoring.

The game of “picky” was fun, but we’ve already talked about that in a previous column.

There was also “off the wall,” which was a game played with a rubber or tennis ball. The “batter” would bounce the ball off a wall, and the fielders would try to catch it. There were designations for singles and doubles, and the game could be a fun time.

Back in those “dark ages,” we pretty much had to use our own devices as to our games.

Today, many of the games are all mapped out on computers; that’s fine, I guess, but I think I prefer the old ways.

Michael J. Burke, of Holyoke, is retired from The Republican. He can be reached at ekrubm@verizon.net